Saturday, September 20, 2008

"AFTER just days in her job as the state's Education Minister, Verity Firth was shocked to discover that the State Government provided most of the funding for public schools.

Ms Firth told the Herald she was concerned and more than a little surprised at the discovery.

"When you think about the actual percentage of education funding that comes from the states versus the amount that comes from the Commonwealth, the states overwhelmingly fund primary and secondary school education," she said.

"I think I was a bit ignorant about that. I think I'd always assumed it was a bit of a 50-50. It's not at all; it's about 80-20 … we need a better partnership on that."

Okay, so she's just been made the Minister.

But for how many years did she vote on budgets on before that without reading them?